


Animal Magic

by Tyellas



Category: The Shape of Water (2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, F/M, Gen, Magic, Magical Realism, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-31
Updated: 2018-08-31
Packaged: 2019-07-04 23:07:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15851298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tyellas/pseuds/Tyellas
Summary: Elisa knows the world has magic. She can feel what she's got - and see what she's missing: spirit-creatures that cling to every living human but herself. Then the day comes when she meets another, enchanting, inhuman Creature.





	Animal Magic

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ravenousravishing](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ravenousravishing/gifts).



> For the Shape of Water Fic Exchange 2018, and for ravenousravishing's prompt: "A fic where magic is part of the plot; Elisa being a witch, magic universe, etc."

Elisa knew her life had some extra magic.

There were the dreams, of course. The wonderful aquatic visions she tore herself away from every evening. There was the sense that, despite her poverty, she had a little extra luck. Getting a job when she was mute, getting an apartment she could afford over the theater she loved. Finding pennies in the sidewalk, perfect-fit garments in the back of sale racks. Raindrops seemed to dance for her. The flow of music, the sparkle of shiny shoes and, best of all, movies – the world felt full of magic.

But one kind of magic was missing. Its lack gave her a tolerance for the rats and roaches she glimpsed in the corners of her place. She was confronted with it every time she opened her door. Like she was doing right now.

Elisa crossed the hall to take Giles a snack. Her friend was squinting at his easel, like always. His work light gleamed on his bald pate as he turned to her. “My dear child. You’re too good to a failed hack. What do you think of this? Not too hideous?”

Giles was surrounded by cats. So many that it took Elisa’s eye to pick out one cat in particular. A cat who did not rush their food bowls, who gave her a dignified head-bonk. This cat sat quietly on the back of Giles’ headrest. It never made a sound when leaping from spot to spot. That cat would always be there – a piece of Giles’ soul. Elisa had seen it was most content when Giles was doing what he did best, drawing and painting.

Elisa went down to grab her bus. She waved at her landlord, Mr. Arzouminian, adjusting the movie theater’s sign. He called out to her, telling her she had a ticket to the new movie if she wanted it, soda and popcorn too. A rabbit perched beside him blinked sleepily, but bounced as he made his kind offer. 

Just as she reached the bottom of the stairs, a family came out of the movie theater, a mother and two children. Elisa listened to the mother's kind, patient answer to one child's question. “No, Tammy, it wasn’t very clean. But it’s a nice theater because it’s integrated. That means everybody can watch a movie together. Isn’t that lovely?” She was lovely herself, slim yet curvy, beautifully dressed. Elisa saw a green-and-red parrot nestling into her hat, ruffling feathers coquettishly.

Her daughter was her blonde miniature, down to a fur collar matching her hair. Despite her pretty clothes, the girl eyed a window display of boys’ things, dungarees and high-tops. Suddenly, her fur collar detached and leapt onto the window. It was a young monkey, its face dark amidst blonde-buff fur, already adventurous.  

Her little brother glommed openly onto the same window display. “Mom! Can I get a Wild West gun set? Please can I?” The little boy’s creature was a lizard, green with a touch of red like his mother's bird, following where his sister's monkey led. Odd, Elisa thought, that they all had tropical animals. They must be from out of town.

Elisa’s bus arrived. She got onto it all alone, no animal shadow following her.

Elisa had never had one of the soul-creatures. What did they do for people? She wasn’t quite sure. Yet they seemed essential. In the concrete streets and low neighborhoods of Baltimore, they were the only link some people had to the natural world. A reminder that everyone was part of something bigger than them, yet unable to see it. Except for her, seeing it and without it at the same time.

She felt other people sensed her lack somehow. Especially the Matron at the orphan’s home where she had been raised. The Matron’s creature, an opossum, had been a horrific thing. Terrible when it hissed and chuckled and nipped, dirty fur raised in spikes. Even worse when when it oozed up to you, a bag of hairy fat brushing against you. If somebody yelled at or hit the children she’d seen earlier, their animals would shift like that. The lizard would become a slimy, sly thing, the monkey a toothy horror.  Maybe, after the orphan's home, it was for the best that Elisa didn’t have one. Maybe it was why she’d wound up there in the first place.

Elisa rested her face against the glass of the window beside her. Butterfly brooches, feather-touched hats didn’t fill the gap of that. She couldn’t bear the idea of a pet. When she thought about it all too much, her throat hurt.

At work at Occam, everyone had a small shadow clinging to them or trotting behind them. Lots of them had dogs or cats, nice or nasty like the people they followed. Fleming’s pig was impossible to miss. It was one of the livelier ones, sniffing with its nose or tapping with its hooves to find the spots the janitors didn’t mop. Fleming would find them a second later. One of the dogs did something very rare, breaking from its human to dart to Elisa.

This was Zelda’s own creature, loving and generous. The charming dog wagged its whole body to see her, then herded her to where Zelda waited in line. Being with Zelda, and being at Giles’ place, were the only times when Elisa didn’t miss having a soul-creature of her own.

There was a serious kerfuffle around Lab T-4 today. Scientists unpacking equipment, MPs on guard, plenty for her and Zelda to do. To Elisa’s surprise, one of the scientists introduced himself to the cleaners as Doctor Hoffstetler.

Elisa gave her full attention to this short, stern but gentle man. At first, he was notable for an absence. Was his soul-creature missing, too? Was that why he had noticed her so quickly? No. His creature turned out to be hiding. When he shook hands with Elisa, a green chameleon lizard slid out of his sleeve. Elisa had an extra smile for the funny thing. The lizard sniffed her. With a quick, inoffensive zap of a long tongue, it tasted her. This done, it scrabbled up to the man’s shoulder, changing color to be as white as his lab coat, eyes swiveling at different angles to take everything in.

T-4’s massive doors opened wider. Six MPs ushered in a huge metal cylinder, strange with seals and windows. Elisa didn’t notice their animals at all, for the cylinder rocked on its cart. She heard a benthic moan of misery, like the voice of the sea, one of her dreams waiting to be set free. Whatever was in there, she knew, was not human. The air fairly crackled. Elisa's eyes widened. Magnetized by curiosity, she drew closer.

The chameleon vanished into Hoffstetler’s collar. Other workers’ dogs clung to their ankles. Fleming’s pig ran around in circles and hid under a table. They had not been afraid of what the cylinder contained. But they were afraid now. Elisa looked up, ready to be alarmed.

A tall, hard-faced man with a black cane was entering the lab. He was absolutely correct in overcoat and hat, razored to crispness. The creature on his shoulder was his opposite: a large, dark monkey, baring its fangs in silent aggression. Its ragged fur and harsh claws were tangled and enlarged with the vines and vegetation of some dark jungle. Together, the man and his beast radiated malevolence.

Elisa had only seen anything so awful once, a mad mongrel foaming and snapping behind a general. The monkey saw Elisa and changed shoulders to lean out, sniff at her. It everted its lips in a fanged grin, eyes glinting uncannily. Elisa tried to not be there. 

The cylinder, and its contents, were so compelling that Elisa managed to ignore the monkey until the cylinder’s inhabitant responded to her tapping. Its hand – a _hand_ – struck the cylinder’s glass like a tidal wave. Then, all hell broke loose. A roar of _get them out of here_ blended with the awful monkey’s howl of angry misery. Deeply rattled, Elisa still had to be herded away by Zelda and her dog.

Later, magnetized into returning, Elisa gingerly approached the creature’s tank. It glided up to to her, wary yet drawn. As if it, too, was as solitary as she, surrounded by enemies and reminders. It was the most amazing creature she’d ever seen, from its wide-set face to its splendid swimmer’s feet, its matador’s hips and chain-mail scales, its impeccable flows of movement. She had never been so compelled by anything in her life. Could it be her soul’s creature, delivered to her so late and strangely?

Elisa touched the glass. Her breath was fluttering wildly in her throat, like she, too, should have gills to breathe from, there.

In response, the creature balanced its hand against hers. The tank glass, between them, was almost electric. She could feel magic waiting to happen. They gazed at each other in shared wonder. This being was so glorious it could not possibly be hers. It seemed as above humans as humans were from their pets. Perhaps she was its – his - creature?

The idea grabbed her like the most powerful undertow. Elisa hadn’t prayed in years. Hadn’t wished for more than pennies or sparkles. But, that? Oh, please let it be so.

At this thought of hers, the creature lit up with stunning bioluminescence. As if he could sense her heart, and was saying _yes, yes, yes._

**Author's Note:**

> The prompt's title was "Magic Users AU" but... the official novel has some striking art of Strickland, at an office desk, with screaming monkeys on his shoulders. There's also the novel's near-ending scene with all the animals of Baltimore flooding out to wish the creature farewell. There's my fondness for both the movie _Coco_ with its spirit guide/alibreje creatures, and for Philip Pullman's _His Dark Materials_ novels, where every human has an animal daemon linked to their soul. 
> 
> Full person/critter list:  
> Giles - Domestic cat  
> Mr. Arzoumanian - Rabbit/hare  
> Fleming - Domestic pig  
> Dr. Hoffstetler - Chameleon lizard  
> Zelda - Boston terrier dog  
> Elaine Strickland - Carolina parakeet  
> Timmy Strickland - Carolina anole, also called 'the American chameleon'  
> Tammy Strickland - Howler monkey, juvenile female  
> Richard Strickland - Howler monkey, adult male
> 
> Elisa and the creature both not having one, here...what do you think it means? ;D
> 
> I hope you enjoy this, ravenousravishing.


End file.
